


You're Dangerous, Icarus

by themadmarchhare42



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, BLACKWING - Freeform, Dirk needs a hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Farah is the mum of the group, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Rescue, Rescuing Dirk from Blackwing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-27 12:56:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10021646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadmarchhare42/pseuds/themadmarchhare42
Summary: When Todd and Amanda go to rescue Dirk from Blackwing, they're none to happy about their friends treatment...“That’s why we need to keep you here, so you can’t hurt people,” the Professor said. “You don’t want to hurt people, do you?”“No...” Dirk whispered.





	1. Chapter 1

**Inspired by the Tumblr prompt: “anything after Dirk’s been taken back to the facility and is trying to convince them unsuccessfully that he’s not a threat to anyone.”**

**Note: As we don’t really have any names for the Blackwing guys, I’ve put in a placeholder character for the doctor in charge of Dirk until we get a canon character to fill in. Also, Friedkin is probably a bit smarter in here…**

 

* * *

 

 

They’d taken him from the street.  


He hadn’t even had time for a proper objection, just a quiet “not now” before he’d been hit from behind by the butt of a gun, sending him crashing into unconsciousness.

He’d awoken in a similar room to that of the hospital, enough for him to entertain the idea that the entire encounter had been a dream. That was until he spotted the lack of windows and the security camera pointed right at him.

He’d been awake about five minutes when the door opened and a familiar figure walked in. It was an older man, his hair greying at the temples now, but still had the same labcoat and the same narrowed eyes behind steel-rimmed glasses.

Dirk knew him as Professor. That was all he was allowed to know. He had been Dirk’s chief ‘doctor’ over his stay at Blackwing, but he was more obviously a scientist than a medical man; pumping his subjects with serums and putting them through shocks and experiments that Dirk only truly remembered in his nightmares.

“Project Icarus,” he said. Dirk shrunk back on the bed as the Professor approached him. "Glad to see you back. Shall we take this to the interview room?”

\---

“I hear you’ve been playing detective, Icarus,” the Professor noted, glancing at his notes.

He’d escorted Dirk to the Interview Room, where subjects and employees were briefed and debriefed. The place smelled of disinfectant, the bright lights felt too clinical to be settling and Dirk shifted uncomfortably, feeling exposed out of his jacket. They’d apparently confiscated his belongings when he was unconscious, and he was wearing the facilities regulation clothes for subjects.

“I wasn’t playing,” Dirk muttered.

“Icarus, what you’ve been doing in Blackwing’s absence is reckless and an irrisponsable use of your abilities.”  


“I was helping people. No one else would have.”

“Isn’t there a reason that’s the case? You were wasting your time chasing missing dogs, when we could have been completing vital work here.”

“I wasn’t reckless,” Dirk objected. “I was doing okay! I had friends! We have a detective agency and we’ve-”

“You’re dangerous, Icarus,” the Professor said.

Dirk stopped, the words drying in his throat.

“Your abilities put people in danger, don’t you remember that?” he asked, like a teacher explaining something to a difficult student.

“But-” Dirk started, but the Professor wasn’t finished.

“The universe uses you to help its path, and if you drag random people into it the universe won’t like it.”

“I wouldn’t let them get hurt,” Dirk muttered determinedly.

“And a fine job you’ve been doing. Didn’t your friend nearly die of electrocution?”

 _He was trying to save me..._ Dirk thought.

“According to our surveillance, you woke up in the hospital alone. Your ‘friends’ weren’t there for you,” the Professor said, chuckling thoughtfully. “Of course they weren’t. After what you put them through, what makes you think they’d want to stick around?”

_Todd said he would. He HAD._

“Especially when they find out what you are. Think about it. How do you think they’re going to react to you hiding this from them?”

_Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. They had funding and everything. Farah was going to help them._

“And why would they still want you? When they find you’re a scientific experiment?”

“No!” Dirk shouted. “They’re not like that!”

The backhanded slap echoed round the room.

Dirk reeled, staring at the floor; waiting for the white noise of shock to dissipate. His face stung with the force of the hit. The Professor was leaning forward, making sure he was listening.  
“Because that’s all you are. You’re an experiment. A lab animal.”

_“You’re a monster.”_

_Todd had said that. He’d lied to his only friend._

_He was a monster._

“That’s why we need to keep you here, so you can’t hurt people,” the Professor said. “You don’t want to hurt people, do you?”

“No...” Dirk whispered.

 

\---  

It had taken Todd and Farah hours to find the base, and even longer to get inside. Precious time, while Dirk was going through who knows what. And when they’d finally arrived, they’d been caught before they could even get past the entrance hall.

They were now sat in a small cupboard room, which seemed to act as one of the many surveillance rooms for the centre. A man was already waiting for them in there.

"Hello," he said cheerfully, apparently not reading Todd and Farah's death glares. "My names Hugo Friedkin-"

“Where’s Dirk?” Todd asked.

Friedkin jumped, then said “We have project Icarus under control.”

“Control?” Farah frowned, “What do you mean control?”

“Why would you want to control Dirk?” Todd asked.

“He wouldn’t hurt anyone!" Farah said.

The idea that a person as innocent as Dirk would need any security measures on him was absurd. He was hardly dangerous, just mishap prone.

“We have a man looking into Project Icarus as we speak. Shall we see how they’re getting on?”

 He turned to the centre screen and changed the feed. What showed up next was a generic white room, smaller than Todd’s kitchen back at the flat, with a single door and no windows. Inside, Dirk and a man were sat opposite each other at a small table. The man was talking to Dirk, his condescension thick enough to taste even through the tinny speakers.

_“Remember what we told you?”_

 

\---

“Remember what we told you?” The Professor asked.

“I need to stay here,” Dirk said plainly.

“Wrong.”

“I-I’m dangerous,” Dirk bit out the correction. “I… deserve to be here.”

The Professor nodded. “That’s a good boy.”

Dirk internally recoiled. He hated the Professor, but at the same time he had an ingrained sense to obey the man from years of being at the facility. He felt like he could resist his instructions and orders as much as he could resist his hunches from the universe, it just couldn’t be done.

“Now,” the Professor said with interest. “Let’s try an experiment”

 

\--- 

Watching through the feed, Todd’s eyes widened as he recalled the incident in the coffee shop:

_“Let’s do an experiment.”_

_“I don’t have time for, or interest in, talking about your stupid picture of a cowboy”_

Dirk had hated the idea of testing his ‘powers’, even refusing to call them powers at all. Todd hadn’t even considered _why_ …

 

\--- 

The Professor placed three pictures down on the table in front of Dirk. Todd, Amanda and Farah’s faces stared at him, taken from CCTV footage. Dirk’s stomach turned; Blackwing had been watching them all along.

“Who are these people?” the Professor asked casually.

“My friends,” Dirk said with a smile. Looking at their faces made him feel warm, happy. It was nice.

“Names, Icarus,” the Professor sighed testily.

“That’s not _my_ name,” Dirk muttered defiantly.

“It’s the name we gave you.”

“It’s no-”

Another slap, this one more painful than the last. Now Dirk remembered why he didn’t resist the Professor. Dirk’s ribs had taken a while to heal properly from the last time he was in a room with him. It _hurt_.

“What’s your name?” the Professor asked him. His voice was level and calm, but there was that warning in his eyes, daring Dirk to say something different.

“Dir-”

He slammed the table, making Dirk jump. “What _is your NAME_?”

“P-Project Icarus.”

 

\--- 

Todd and Farah were seething and they watched this injustice, this cruelty against Dirk; someone who never did anything to deserve this harm, who never wanted to hurt anyone, who was consistently beaten black and blue by an unfair and cruel universe. He didn’t deserve this.

 

\--- 

“That’s better,” the Professor said, clicking his pen and scribbling something down on the paper infront of him. “You can head back to your cell,” he said, not looking up. “I can trust you to do that on your own? Or do we have to restrain you again?”

“No,” Dirk rolled his shoulder, remembering the guards manhandling him from before. “I can go on my own.”

 

\---

As Dirk left the room, Friedkin shut off the video feed.

“They’re planning on running quite a few years on that one,” he said, turning to Todd and Farah. “They want to see what 16 years has done to counter his development.”

“Development?”

Friedkin shrugged vaguely.

“They said something about weapons, which I can get behind.”

“Weapons?” Farah stalled. All the way through the interview, she’d been working on her wrist bonds, loosening them. Luckily he was so dense, he never noticed the rope slipping loose.

Friedkin raised his eyebrows. “That’s all they’re good for, aren’t they?”

Farah lunged. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HERE COMES THE ANGST TRAIN! *TOOT TOOT*
> 
> Don't worry, there's also plenty of comfort here too...

 Dirk was shuffling along the corridor towards the room he’d woken up in, when a door further up burst open and Todd and Farah fell out of it.

“DIRK!” Todd cried, spotting his friend. Dirk froze as they ran up to him, momentarily wondering what new hallucinogenic the professor had given him. However, that idea was snapped out of him when the two possible hallucinations barrelled him into a hug.

“Todd?” Dirk frowned, “Farah? Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Dirk, it’s going to be alright, okay?” Farah reassured the flustered psychic.

“How did you-?”

“We got here as fast as we could,” Todd said, a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Wh-”

Suddenly, the door Dirk had just come out of burst open and the Professor stormed up to them.

 

The Professor had heard Todd and Farah escape from the room next door, and he didn’t know where the security he’d called were; but until they arrived he’d have to stall them from running off with one of their only remaining projects. Half of his staff had been killed by that rat-haired assassin who’d broken out a day ago.

“Hand the project over,” he said as he approached. Todd and Farah drew in front of Dirk protectively.

“He’s not a project, he’s a human being!” Farah snapped. “Come on Dirk, let’s go.”

She grabbed Dirk’s wrist and pulled him towards the exit at the end of the corridor. She didn’t know where the security guards that had been swarming the place before had gone, but she was going to take advantage of their disappearance.

The Professor sighed testily. “Project Icarus, come here.”

Dirk froze in place, his breath catching.

He couldn’t help it.

Since before he could remember he’d been at the beck and call of these people, doing what they wanted when they wanted lest he receive punishment. Even sixteen years down the line, it was still ingrained to ‘do as you are told, Icarus’.

And here he was now, stuck between the people who were his best friends and the people who owned him.

“Dirk, come on,” Farah made to go again, pulling gently at his hand. Dirk’s body conceded and allowed itself to be pulled along. However, meters from the door, the Professor called again.

“Icarus. Remember what we taught you.”

Dirk stopped. Even Farah had turned to look back at the man.

“Dirk, let’s go,” Farah said quietly, not liking the silence in their usually overly energetic friend.

“Icarus,” the Professor said in a warning tone.

“It’s not true,” Dirk said, a scared lump forming in his throat.

“What?” Todd asked. “What did he tell you?”

“Your dangerous, Icarus.”

“He’s not dangerous,” a voice came from behind. Suddenly, the Professor was on the floor, groaning in pain with Amanda stood over him, brandishing a baseball bat.

“ _I_ am.”

 

Dirk, Todd and Farah gaped as Amanda stepped over the floored man and walked towards them. Behind her stood the Rowdy Three, all four looking very proud of her.

“You alright, Dirk?” she asked. The Rowdy Three had been rather agitated, picking up on the detectives apparent distressed emotions through the facility and it had taken a lot of persuading to stop them from barraling headlong through the walls and erform just a bit of stelth, less they be outgunned again by surprise. Dirk nodded mutely, stunned by the unexpected entrance. She narrowed her eyes at the bruise forming on Dirk’s face, wishing she’d hit the Professor harder.

“Let’s go,” Martin instructed.

“The van’s waiting outside,” Vogel grinned.

“What about the guards?” Farah asked.

“We dealt with them,” Martin said.

They took in their slightly rumpled look and decided not to ask, instead followed them as they turned towards the exit. However, before they opened the door, a voice came from behind them:

“You can’t do this,” the Professor groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “Project Icarus is _our property_.”

“He’s not anymore,” Amanda said, walking back over to him. “And his name,” she spat as she towered over him, “is _Dirk_.” She brought the handle of her bat down sharply against his head, knocking him out cold.

 

\---

 

Barely a minute later, the group rushed from the facility and piled into the Rowdy Van that Vogel had sloppily parked on the street outside, having dragged the Rowdy Three away from smashing the place up as much as they’d like. They’d had to practically carry Dirk, who was shocked still by all these events happening in such quick succession when he’d never even expected anyone to come save him at all. The Rowdy’s had been rather subtle about draining Dirk’s terror, waiting until the psychic was safely in the back of the van before pulling the purple and blue mist from him. He was left a little shaken, but the wave of emotions had been taken away and he felt a bit more relaxed.

“We found this on our way to free the other Rowdy’s,” Amanda said as the boys moved away, handing him the slightly tattered yellow jacket that the scientists had taken from Dirk.

“Thank you,” Dirk smiled quietly, not up to his usual boundless energy just yet.

When they’d shut the doors, Vogel clambered into the driving seat, through the window instead of opening the door, and floored the gas. The van squealing away in the wrong gear, almost hitting a lamppost as it careened away down the long road.  
It was a little cramped in the back, but Dirk positively drank in the closeness of the people around him that was so different from the empty rooms in the facility. He’d dreaded the Rowdy Three’s presence before, but seeing their support and protectiveness over Amanda, it had changed to a growing trust.

 

\---

Three hours later and they arrived back at Todd’s flat. The Rowdy’s had let them out and Amanda had told them to pick her up in a few hours, before they’d once again torn off down the road to god knows where.

Todd, Farah and Amanda had managed to convince Dirk to have a shower and Farah had brought out her first aid kit in case he had any other wounds apart from the growing bruise on his face that still made their fists itch.

Dirk looked embarrassed without his shirt, and would only let Farah in the room after a lot of convincing. Todd and Amanda didn’t object, not wanting to make the shaken detective even more uncomfortable. Todd may have been his best friend, but Dirk felt Farah was more qualified to deal with this; and he didn’t want to put any more trouble onto Todd and Amanda’s shoulders, since he was the one who destroyed their already fragile relationship.

Dirk had some heavy bruising on his upper arms, where the guards had manhandled him in and out of the van and the facility. He also had a sizeable wound to the back of his head where he’d been knocked unconscious, which was in need of some antiseptic cream, and a few superficial wounds to his arms and shoulders when he’d hit the tarmac. But apart from that he seemed to be okay physically. Mentally however, Dirk was still very fragile. When Farah had finished patching him up, she let him put his shirt back on, along with his yellow jacket. It was quite warm inside the flat, but she sensed Dirk felt a little exposed after all the events of the day.

 Todd and Amanda were understanding, and had managed to scrape together some food for them to eat. However, halfway through the meal, Dirk sat back with a sniff. He'd been trying to hold back the thoughts for awhile now, but the kindness of his friends kept bringing the Professors words back into his mind.

That he was dangerous.

That he was a burden.

That soon these 'friends' of his would leave him behind once they were done.

He'd lied to Todd again. He hadn't told them about how he was an escaped experiment from a maniacal government facility who was now after him. Sure, things were good now, but soon these consequences would come back and then...

The food tasted like ash in his mouth and he put the fork down with a shakey hand.

_I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve ANY of this._

"Dirk?" Todd asked, noticing the change in his friend's behaviour.

“I’m sorry but I- I…”

“What is it, Dirk?"

“I don’t deserve this, I’m sorry…”

"What?"

"You're being really nice to me, and I don't deserve it... You should have left me there, or on the street, I don't know..."

"Dirk, you've been through a lot. At the very least, you deserve some food and a roof over your head."

"But I _lied_ to you..." Dirk choked out. "I didn't tell you about all of..." he gestured to himself. "this stuff, with my head and Blackwing and..." he trailed off, eyes watering.

Amanda took his hand reassuringly. “I don’t care. We don't blame you for hiding this. We understand."

“No, you don’t understand.”

“Understand what, Dirk?” Farah asked softly.

“Everything that happened, it was because of _me_.”

“Dirk,” Farah said, turning to face him. “Did you cause Patrick Spring to build the time machine?”

Dirk hesitated then shook his head numbly.

“Did you put Lydia in the corgi?”

“No.”

“Did you force Todd to get involved?”

Dirk looked up and brandished a finger, “Ah-”

“No,” Farah shut him down. “He chose that _himself_ ,” she shot Todd a look. “He could have kicked you out and not looked back, but he wanted to see what the hell was going on.”

“I nearly killed you,” Dirk objected. “All of you!”

“And it was awesome!” Amanda grinned.

Dirk smiled, but didn’t look convinced.

“Without you, I wouldn’t have met the Rowdy guys,” Amanda said.

“And they’re so great?” Dirk frowned.

“They help with my illness,” Amanda said. “I haven’t had a really bad attack since meeting them.”

Todd shuffled. In all the drama of the last day, he hadn’t brought up his attack with them yet. He knew they’d find out eventually, but right now he was happy to let this evening be about Dirk and their strange little family unit.

“You aren’t the cause of this,” Farah told Dirk. “You’re the one who fixed it.”

“The only person who could be bothered to help,” Todd parroted, remembering their talk by the dumpster.

“I… I don’t know anymore,” Dirk sighed.

“Just know that no matter what happens,” Farah said. “We’ll be here for you. Even if you mess up.”

“Yeah,” Todd laughed. “Who here hasn’t royally screwed up?”

Amanda shot him a look, but then gave a little smirk. Their sibling relationship was still rocky, but after such a long day she was willing to put it to one side for now.

 Dirk yawned, then looked guilty. “Sorry, I’m a bit tired…”

“You can use my bed,” Todd said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ll crash on the sofa tonight.”

Dirk stood and walked towards the room, then turned back again. “You’re sure?”

“Just go, Dirk,” he laughed, Farah and Amanda chuckling with him.

“Okay,” Dirk gave a smile, then hesitated once again. “You’ll… keep watch, right?”

“We will,” Farah said. “I don’t think I could sleep anyway.”

“Yeah, I’m too pumped,” Amanda agreed.

 

After a few minutes, Dirk snuck back in and grabbed a few cushions from the sofa, before going back into the bedroom again.

A while later, curiosity got the better of them and they peered round the door. Dirk had constructed a nest from the pillows and cushions and was now snuggled into the middle of it, fast asleep and looking very peaceful.

“Aw,” Amanda cooed.

“Right…” Farah nodded. “Movie?”

“Yeah sure,” Todd agreed.

“What’d you have?”

"Uh, some fantasy movies. Sound good?”

“Yeah, okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Obligatory LOTR reference!
> 
> Thanks for the support for this fic! I have a few more generic angst Dirk Gently fics that I might post later on if people want that...

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, sorry about the quality of this one!
> 
> note: The Professor is really an OC placeholder, awaiting an actual canon character to take his place (because right now we don't really have any names for the people at Blackwing) so I just made a generic bad guy to give some catharsis to the characters.
> 
> I've got most of the next chapter written, but it needs some editing and I didn't want to delay releasing this one before I finished it completely.
> 
> Let me know if I've made any mistakes!


End file.
